Exploring St. Paul's past through the pages of the Pioneer Press.

Very first Vikings game was blowout victory, but you couldn’t see it on TV

The underdog Minnesota Vikings surprised all but their most optimistic fans in their NFL debut, beating the Chicago Bears 37-13 on Sept. 17, 1961.

The Bears — who had trounced the Vikings 30-7 in a preseason game just two weeks earlier — were 10-point favorites in the match-up, but rookie quarterback Fran Tarkenton carried Minnesota to victory.

Tarkenton, who entered the game late in the first quarter, completed 17 of 23 passes for 250 yards and four touchdowns that Sunday afternoon at Metropolitan Stadium. He ran in a fifth touchdown himself.

But Twin Cities football fans couldn’t watch their team’s first win on television. The only professional football game televised in this market that day was the Oakland Raiders vs. the San Diego Chargers on KMSP, according to TV listings in that day’s Pioneer Press.

Only the 32,236 people in the stands at the Met were able to watch the Vikings victory. Everyone else had to listen to the game on WCCO Radio. And, judging by a handful of man-on-the-street interviews in the next day’s Pioneer Press, many did.

St. Paul cab driver Russ Finke “heard little else from his customers late Sunday afternoon and evening,” the newspaper reported.

“It’s a good thing for the town, for the whole state,” Finke told a reporter. “Can you imagine the crowd they’re going to have out there the next time they play?”

Even Bears Coach George Halas, who had called the game “a toss-up” the day before, confessed to being impressed by the rout.

“Of course we knew the Vikings were a good football team but we didn’t expect this,” Halas told reporters. “They’re not amateurs, they’re football players.”

The win against a divisional rival rocketed the Vikings to the No. 1 spot in the Western Division standings — but they didn’t stay there long. Following their blowout victory against the Bears, the team embarked upon a seven-game losing streak and won only two more games that season.